3A - Cultural Diversity in Parenting Universal goals of...

Cultural Diversity in Parenting
Universal goals of parenting
 Ensuring the physical survival & health of the child
 Providing an environment for successful progression through the developmental stages
into adulthood
 Teaching/modeling normative cultural & societal values
However…
 How these goals are accomplished is not necessarily universal
Ethnic/racial variations
 Historically considered due to deficiencies
 Now viewed as legitimate adaptations to different contexts
Culture
 Cultural group
 A collective of individuals who share common beliefs, practices, ideals, values,
traditions & behaviors
 Ethnic group
 Cultural group that traces its origins to a particular area, region or country
 Racial group
 Categorization of humans into populations on the basis of various sets of heritable
characteristics (skin color, cranial/facial features, hair texture)
Cultural influence on parenting
 Organization of everyday life
 Physical & social settings
 Parenting practices
 Routines of care & training
 Parental ethnotheories
 Beliefs about children, families and themselves that are brought to interactions
with children
Physical and Social Settings
 Influences what we have ethnocentrically believed is optimal development
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